Artistic World

Kim Hyun Jung began by looking at herself, and through the figure of 'Naesoong' she has painted the hearts of people living today. The figure in her paintings wears a hanbok, yet beside her sit contemporary objects — a smartphone, a shopping bag, a car, exercise equipment. It is in this unexpected meeting of tradition and today that the world of 'Naesoong' begins.

Naesoong is not simple pretense. It is closer to an attitude of adjusting oneself while conscious of others' gaze within society, moving back and forth between the wish to hide and the wish to reveal. Kim Hyun Jung has carried this feeling onto the canvas through humor, exaggeration, and at times paradox. From finding herself before a mirror, to adorning herself behind a mask, to revealing herself on a stage and facing the audience's gaze, and finally to discovering a self that breathes together within relationships — her work has moved through these five chapters, continually expanding the question of 'I.'

More recently, she has widened the ground of that question through works on marriage and relationships, and through collaborations with brands, spaces, and media beyond the exhibition hall. Recording today's life and emotions in the traditional language of Korean painting — that has been, and remains, the center of Kim Hyun Jung's work.